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*** May Challenge - Cut to the Chase! (RPGtonight.com sponsored)

In a surprise move by the site administrator (me) I'm posting the May Challenge not only on time, but almost RIGHT on time I want you all to have PLENTY of time to work on this challenge, because this is yet another fantastic RPGtonight.com sponsored challenge. I'm not sure if you all remember last years, but the prize list was quite generous and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to offer this year (prize list is forthcoming).

So without any further ado...Here's the Challenge Guidelines.

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Just like in the movies, a running battle in an RPG can bring extra
excitement not present in a static encounter that takes place in one
little area. Think of the famous chase scenes and moving battles in Mad
Max, Indiana Jones, the French Connection, dozens of Westerns and James
Bond movies, or the aggressive races in Ben Hur and Rollerball. This
month’s contest involves creating a tabletop or VTT miniatures encounter
map of the scene of a challenging moving battle and chase.

The rules are as follows:

The chase path must be linear in the sense of being a single path with
various features and obstacles. The path can be two ended, with a
beginning that is separate from the end, or looped like a racetrack. You
could make a very thin, long, straight map or a normally proportioned
rectangular map with a twisty chase path. Tiles would be a plus, but not
necessary – the GM could add tiles as the players progress, or turn tiles
around to re-use them for later parts of the path.

The chase path must have a start point and an end point. In the case of
looped tracks, this could simply be the start and finish lines, with
multiple loops taken around the track. In the case of a two-ended path,
the start should be some feature where a chase would logically start – for
example the point where railroad tracks go past a train robber’s hideout.
The end should be some point where the chase would logically end if those
being chased are not stopped – for example the point where the railroad
tracks go onto a trestle bridge where the outlaws can’t follow. The
endpoint might also have an interesting “surprise” (cliff, police
blockade, whatever) that could foil either the heroes or the bad guys if
they don’t make their saving throws.

There must be obstacles, pitfalls, tight turns, roll based traps/events,
or other deadly stuff along the way to make the chase interesting. Some of
these could be in the form of removable objects that the GM can put in
different places, especially if tiles are used.

The path length must be long enough to require at least several rounds of
movement/combat/evasion etc. in the game system of your choice. We’ll
leave it up to the mapmaker to decide how long the path has to be to make
a memorable encounter. Those considering maps for fast vehicles might want
to consider tiling – otherwise the map will be verrrrrry long.

Any genre or era, is OK, and the chase path can be designed for any form
of transportation, or none. Let your imagination run wild! You could
design anything from a rutted stagecoach road in the Old West to the
slipstreams and vortices in a nebula surrounding a black hole.

* RPGtonight will be allowed to use winning maps in its onsite collection for use by members in their games.
* Cartographers' Guild is not responsible for any disputes or claims by contestants arising out of or in connection with either the selection of winning entries or with prizes.

At first this didn't really catch my eye as something I could even attempt, sounding much more "present day" than my more favored "fantasy" but I think I have an idea...naval/river battle. Without having to search all over the forums what is the standard pixels-per-feet ratio for a VT?

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

The pertinent thing is that the map is shared on a monitor between people who are commonly represented by a token placed on its surface. The map should be designed such that it is convenient to be explored by tokens, perhaps with a radius of vision or a fog of war.

Sigurd

Dollhouse Syndrome = The temptation to turn a map into a picture, obscuring the goal of the image with the appeal of cute, or simply available, parts. Maps have clarity through simplification.